This guide gives you a little taste of everything to help you make the most out of seasonal produce.
- Buying & storage tips
- Expected shelf life
- Answers to common questions about each fruit & veggie
- Recipes that use only ingredients in-season this month (or available year-round at high quality)
- Resources for those of you who want even more information
Best advice for May
Stone fruits and berries stop getting sweeter the moment they are picked. However, they do continue to change color and soften, which can be very deceiving when trying to pick out the best tasting ones. It’s helpful to find a source that sells tree-ripened stone fruits and vine(or bush)-ripened berries when possible.
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- An infographic with tips for each fruit & vegetable
- Monthly produce highlights
- Dozens of seasonal recipes
Cherries
Early cherry varieties show up this month, with Memorial Day being a pretty reliable time to find them anywhere in the US.
How to buy & store
- Buy: Look for fruits with plump, shiny skins. If stems are attached, look for green ones, indicating freshness. Avoid shriveled skins, a sign they drying out.
- Store: in a plastic bag in the fridge, unwashed
- Shelf life: 1 week in the fridge
Best cherries for pie
The traditional pie calls for sour cherries along with extra sugar to balance the tartness. Fresh sour cherries can be very hard to find. Sweet cherries like Bing and Ranier work great in pies as well, and require less added sugar.
Both types of cherries soften well when cooked, while retaining their shape. They both make excellent pie, so take your pick. Get a more detailed breakdown and tips for cherry pies.
Recipes
Strawberries
Strawberries are available year round, but have so much more flavor when they are in season. Now that it is May, you should start seeing them at your farmers markets.
How to buy & store
- Buy bright red fruit with no white or green shoulders. Smell them, they should have a noticeable strawberry smell. (more on this later).
- Store: place in a single-layer on a paper-towel lined plate or tray in the fridge.
- Shelf life: 2-4 days
Why it’s hard to find good tasting strawberries
A lot of factors contribute this fruit’s disappearing flavor over the decades.
- Varieties are bred and planted to resist rot and pests, regardless of their lackluster flavor
- Strawberries are picked early to avoid heavy rains that can ruin a crop
- They can be picked while completely white and will still turn red by the time they reach grocery stores
Strawberries stop developing flavor and sweetness once they are picked. So when they are picked early, they lose out on the chance to build up to their full flavor.
The best way to buy strawberries is from a u-pick, and the next best is from a local farmers market where you can taste a sample. Lucky for us, they grow well in most climates so you should be able to find a u-pick or farmers market with strawberries near you.
Recipes
Blueberries
How to buy & store
- Buy blueberries that are plump with no wrinkles (which indicate they are past their prime). They should be fully blue. White or green parts of the berry indicate they were picked much too early.
- Store them in the fridge on a tray in a single layer so they don’t crush each other or spread mold. Don’t wash before storing, only wash before you eat them.
- Shelf life: a few days to a week in the fridge
How to stop blueberries from sinking to the bottom of muffins
Conventional wisdom says you should toss blueberries in flour before adding them to the muffin batter, in order to prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
But thanks to our desire to put conventional wisdom to the test, we’ve found this trick doesn’t work. Instead, make the batter but don’t add blueberries to it (yet). Fill each muffin tin 1/4 full of ‘plain’ batter. Then add blueberries to the remaining batter and fill the muffin tins the rest of the way.
Recipes
Raspberries
How to buy & store
- Buy raspberries that are plump and bright red. Ones that turn slightly purple are past their prime. Avoid containers with juice stains, a likely indication that some of them have started to decompose.
- Store them in the fridge on a tray that’s lined with a paper towel to absorb any moisture. Make sure they are in a single layer so they don’t crush each other. They mold fast so keep an eye out for any that are going bad and remove them from the tray.
- Shelf life: 1 day in the fridge, or you might get lucky and they will last several days in the fridge.
Varieties
Different raspberry varieties are starting to show up at farmers markets and grocery stores.
- Black – sweeter than the red varieties and are not the same as blackberries. They are smaller and have that typical hollow center raspberries are known for.
- Purple – a cross between black and red raspberries
- Golden – their flavor has hints of banana and apricot
- Rose – a pink variety sold by Driscoll’s (I haven’t seen or tasted these, but will update you as soon as I do).
Recipes
Blackberries
How to buy & store
- Buy plump blackberries with no signs of shriveling, a sign they are losing moisture and past their prime.
- Store in the fridge on a tray lined with paper towels. Lay them on the tray in a single layer so they don’t crush each other.
- Shelf life: a few days or up to a week if you are lucky
Why are blackberries bitter?
Blackberries sometimes have a slightly bitter taste, and it is contained in the stem end and the white core. If you don’t like that bitterness, try one of these methods to counter it:
- Add sugar or fat (like whipped cream), which balances out bitterness
- Use them in a savory dish, salt reduces our ability to taste bitterness
- The bitter compounds also break down with heat, so you can cook them down into a sauce or pie
Recipes
Stone fruit
Stone fruits have that pit in the middle, including peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums (and also cherries).
How to buy & store
Stone fruits only develop flavor while they ripen on the tree – once picked, they stop developing flavor and sweetness. However, they will continue to get softer and more aromatic.
They are also don’t ship well when left to ripen on the tree, they are much too delicate. In order to get them in a store near you, stone fruit are picked early, when still hard, sacrificing a lot of flavor.
The best option is to buy them from a farmers market if they are grown in your area.
- Buy stone fruit that are slightly soft and smells fruity.
- Store on the counter for a few days if they are hard. If they are soft, store them in the fridge.
- Shelf life: a few days in the fridge
Recipes
Kiwi – last of the season
May is the last month for US-grown kiwi.
How to buy & store
- Buy ripe fruits if eating right away, which are slightly soft. Buy firmer ones to hold throughout the week – they will soften over time.
- Store: in fridge when ripe or to keep longer. Leave on the counter to ripen.
- Shelf life: 2-4 weeks in the fridge, several days on the counter.
Kiwi ripen after harvest
Unlike most fruit, kiwi continue to ripen after they are harvested (similar to bananas). Kiwi will get softer, sweeter, and more aromatic as they continue to ripen off the vine.
Kiwi are firmer when picked before fully ripening, which means they are durable enough to stand up to shipping long distances. This means when the US kiwi season is over, we can still get kiwi from New Zealand at a similar quality (their season is opposite of the US).
Recipes
Grapefruit
Grapefruit season is nearly over, but California still has some to offer this month, and possibly into June.
How to buy & store
- Buy grapefruit heavy for its size, a sign of high water content. Scarring on the peel is normal.
- Store on the counter if eating soon, otherwise the fridge.
- Shelf-life: a week on the counter, a few weeks in the fridge
Grapefruit varieties
Citrus fruit cross breed really easily, making a lot of interesting varieties. Sometimes they are a random surprise from nature, other times planned breeding from farmers. Most new grapefruit varieties are selected for an increase in sweetness over the previous generation, as well as lower bitterness (which increases the perception of sweetness).
Learn more about the different grapefruit varieties, from the popular Ruby Red to the rising star Oro Blanco.
Recipes
Rhubarb
Rhubarb, a vegetable masquerading as a fruit with its tart-sweet flavor, is a spring seasonal favorite.
How to buy & store
- Buy crisp stalks with ends that aren’t dried out.
- Store stalks in a plastic bag in the fridge, and cut off any leaves (which will draw moisture from the stalk).
- Shelf life: 1-2 weeks in the fridge
Is red rhubarb sweeter?
Not necessarily. The color is dependent on the variety and doesn’t indicate sweetness or ripeness. While some red varieties are sweeter than green, not all of them are. Think of it like apples, with the vast amounts of green, blush, and red, they all have their own traits.
Recipes
Asparagus
Asparagus are available throughout spring and early summer.
How to buy & store
- Buy asparagus with tightly closed buds. Thin spears are great for steaming and sauteing, thick spears stand up to the high heat from roasting and grilling.
- Store in the fridge in a glass of water, or in a plastic bag.
- Shelf life: eat as soon as you can, as their flavor quickly deteriorates in storage.
Should you snap or cut the ends off?
Traditional wisdom for removing the woody end of asparagus spears is to bend them until they snap. The idea is they will naturally break where the spear is tough.
Numerous organizations have tested this trick and sadly found it doesn’t work. It is better to just cut the ends off and waste less. Oregon Live has a full article about not snapping the ends off.
Recipes
Artichokes
Artichokes are a labor intensive vegetable but are worth it when in season this spring.
How to buy & store
- Buy artichokes with tight, compact leaves that squeek when squeezed (a sign of high water content).
- Store wrapped in a paper towel to absorb any moisture (which will quickly cause them to deteriorate), then place in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Shelf life: up to a week in the fridge
Do I need to cut the tips off the leaves?
The purpose of cutting the tips off is to remove the thorn. Those thorns soften during cooking and a lot of home cooks don’t bother cutting them off when cooking for themselves, but will cut them for guests.
Spring peas
Peas start showing up as early as April in some parts of the country, and by May, they should be in farmers markets everywhere.
How to buy & store
- Buy peas with plump pods, wrinkling is a sign of them drying out. White scars are ok and not an indication of quality.
- Store in plastic bag in your fridge.
- Shelf life: a few days to a week in the fridge
What are the types of peas, and how to they differ?
There are three main types of peas: snap peas, snow peas, and shelling peas.
Snap and snow peas have edible pods. Snap peas are plump, sweet and crunchy. Snow peas are picked when the peas have barely formed, and the pod is still tender and edible.
Shelling peas have to be removed from their pod, as the pod is not edible. You can sometimes find labeled as English peas. These are also what you’ll find in the freezer aisle.
Sweet onions
While regular onions can be found all year, sweet onions are only in season in spring and summer.
How to buy & store
- Buy onions with no soft spots or mildew under the top outer skin.
- Store on counter in a dark place
- Shelf life: 2 weeks (they don’t last as long as regular onions)
Sweet onion varieties
All sweet onions are pretty similar in flavor and the most widely available varieties are Vidalia (from Georgia), Maui (from Hawaii), and Walla Walla (from Washington).
Vidalia and Maui onion seasons start in April, although Maui onions can sometimes be found all year if they are imported into your area. Walla Walla onions won’t start showing up until June.
Edible spring flowers
Chives and nasturtium are flowering this month.
How to use
- The whole flower can be eaten for chives, and nasturtium (compared to some flowers which only have edible petals).
- Wash in a colander or salad spinner and be gentle.
What do the flowers taste like?
Nasturtium flowers and leaves are edible and both are peppery (like arugula). Chive blossoms taste like the rest of the plant: oniony.
Recipes
What’s available year-round?
Fruits: Avocados, lemons & Limes
Vegetables: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, fennel, garlic, herbs, mushrooms, onion-family, potatoes, radishes, sweet potatoes, turnips, salad greens and herbs.
Other seasonal guides?
Check out the seasonal produce guide for June to see what’s coming up soon, or what might still be around from April.
